Wet Wet Wet

Dinner was taken after drinks at the bar which was an archetypal affair. Exactly what you would imagine of a colonial hotel over looking something as outstanding Victoria Falls - a long bar stocked with the finest liqueurs from around the world served by bar men in crisp white uniforms whilst relaxing in deep leather chairs. Here we were joined by "Gordon" ( not his real name), a friend of Dan's who was the ex head of Zambian secret squirrels who would help us the next day to get our passports validated - namely to show we had entered legally and would be able to leave without any undue stress. Dinner, after the self cooked food in Harare was absolutely wonderful.

Breakfast was a glorious affair - sat on the patio over looking the lawns and river rushing by.



Our passports had gone off for their own little adventure with an over zealous Zambian offical who would do everything he could to help us we had some time to spare so given that the Falls were moments away it would have been remiss not to go and have a look. As I walked down with Nick, Stuart came jogging up, as he was out for one and suggested that shorts would be wise as we were likely to get a wet. Taking his sage advice I whipped back to the room, changed and wrapped the camera up in a couple of shower caps and put it back in its neoprene cover.

Here Stuart and I cross through the mist to get a better view.



Not really mist as it started out - more like a complete shower, fully clothed and drenched to the bone.



Walking around the falls it was spectacular - the scale of water tumbling over and it wasn't even the wet season yet. Mind blowingly awesome the beauty that nature provides us with.



I have to say thanks to Nick for the photos as two shower caps and a neoprene case weren't quite enough in the way of protection so keep my camera from getting wet and not working any more. Equally drowned as a rat and being electronic - it didn't go down to well. (About £130 to make the poor thing feel better).

Having changed into dry clothes, but still very wet and soggy boots as they were the only shoes I had we all headed for reception to wait the move to the airport. After much anxious tension at the hotel, knowing that our passports were in the hands of someone else - its never nice when they are taken off you, hoping we would be able to get today's flight they finally arrived. Loading the pickups in double quick time we headed for the airport and managed to check in safely.

OK so it wasn't much past 10 in the morning but having a beer was called for - suggested by Stuart perhaps - or was it Jim (I'm not sure). I won't quibble about who suggested it - we were waiting in departure lounge for the plane to be called and were on the last leg of the journey home!!

The tanoys went... "Can Mr Hooper, Mr Ramsay and Mr Ludlum please come to the information desk please". Oh my god was that us. It was. We got up with our passports and boarding cards and whilst Jim and Paul looked on with amusement we headed back through to the information desk. Waiting for us was an immigration officer. "Can I see your passports please?" As we handed them over he got out a huge ledger, compared the numbers in our passports and on the page. Made a couple of amendments and looked up. "There you go. All done. Have a safe flight". "Thank you" we said in unison, swiftly took the waiting passports from the counter and headed back to our beers. Hmmm very causious... making sure all the numbers tallied in the book - counting us in and back out again. The next swig of beer was very well received to calm my beating heart.

Sitting back as the throttles were put to maximum thrust we sped down the run way and took off. Yes we were free, on our way home. Finally. Well for a short time at least, as we then banked over the river and crossed back into Zimbabwean airspace!

This is the eventual route of our escape. Nothing compared to what many people have done in the past or will do in the future but it was, an adventure, and thankfully a good one too.



The rest as they say... is history.